Angelo Collins, an associate professor of science education at Vanderbilt University, warned teachers that the shift to teaching inquiry-based science won't be easy. "If the vision of the standards doesn't make you a little uncomfortable, if it doesn't cause you to change your way of thinking," she said, "then maybe you need to go back and read them again." Collins was director of the NRC team that developed the standards. Mairin Brennan
BASF sets huge China petrochemical project
Germany-based BASF has taken initial steps in a joint venture to build a $4 billion petrochemical complex in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. The project would feature a 600,000 metric-ton-per-year ethylene cracker and downstream plants. BASF's partner in the venture is Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Corp. (YPC), a subsidiary of the state-owned China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec). The venture is to be Solomon: ozone recovery will fluctuate owned 50% by BASF with the balance to be distributed between Sinopec, YPC, Eruptions inject sulfur dioxide into the and Yangzi BASF Styrenics (a BASFParticles from volcanic eruptions are a stratosphere, where it is oxidized to YPC joint venture). The project will admajor source of year-to-year fluctua- sulfuric acid. The resulting sulfate aero- vance by a fixed timetable from the sections in the severity of stratospheric sol particles linger for years, providing ond half of 1997 to 2002. Yangzi BASF Styrenics, 60% owned ozone depletion, according to a new surfaces for heterogeneous reactions modeling study. The surprisingly that shift the balance among various by BASF, also is located in Nanjing. This venture is building a complex, strong influence of volcanic aerosols on chemical species. destruction of ozone by man-made The most important reaction facilitat- which will be operational in mid-1997, chlorine and bromine compounds has ed by volcanic aerosols is the hydroly- and will be capable of producing implications for the environmental im- sis of dinitrogen pentoxide (N 2 0 5 ) to 130,000 metric tons per year of ethylpact of aircraft and the recovery of the less reactive nitric acid. Because nitro- benzene, 120,000 metric tons of styrene, ozone layer. gen oxides such as N 2 O s normally tie and 100,000 metric tons of polystyrene. In addition to the ethylene cracker, In the years following the 1991 erup- up reactive chlorine and bromine spetion of Mount Pinatubo in the Philip- cies that otherwise would attack ozone, the new project would feature aromatpines, ozone declined much more the N 2 0 5 hydrolysis removes one of ics and butadiene extraction units, a steeply in midlatitude regions than the brakes on halogen-catalyzed ozone synthesis gas plant, an air separation facility, and a power plant. Several ethwould have been expected from the depletion. steady increase in atmospheric concen"Like the polar stratospheric clouds ylene processing plants would be built trations of ozone-destroying chlorofluo- that enhance Antarctic ozone deple- to produce 200,000 metric tons a year rocarbons (CFCs) and other halogen tion," the researchers write, "liquid of polyethylene, 250,000 metric tons of compounds. Atmospheric scientists im- aerosol enhancements increase the effi- ethylene oxide—feeding production of mediately suspected volcanic aerosols ciency of halogen chemistry for ozone 300,000 metric tons of glycols—and were involved. loss at midlatitudes, but are not a 300,000 metric tons of styrene. The complex would also generate Now, National Oceanic & Atmo- mechanism in themselves for substanspheric Administration chemist Susan tial ozone loss independent of human 160,000 metric tons a year of acrylic Solomon and coworkers have used a inputs of chlorine and bromine to the acid and 250,000 metric tons of oxo alcohols. It would include a 100,000 metdynamical-chemical model of the stratosphere." stratosphere to quantify the effects of The effect of emissions of aerosols ric-ton-per-year toluene diisocyanate volcanic particles over an extended pe- from subsonic and proposed superson- plant and a 100,000 metric-ton-per-year riod of time [/. Geophys. Res., 101, 6713 ic aircraft could be more important for methylenediphenyl isocyanate plant, (1996)]. Their study includes not just ozone depletion than the releases of ni- along with a polyvinyl chloride plant. the Pinatubo eruption, but looks back trogen oxides in their exhaust, the sci- And plans include capacity of 30,000 over a 15-year period that includes entists point out—at least until the metric tons per year of propionic acid, Mount St. Helens (1980) and El Chi- chlorine content of the stratosphere de- 50,000 metric tons of formic acid, and 60,000 metric tons of methylamine. chon (1982). creases in the next few decades. Building the complex would require "We've been able to explain why The modeling work also may help some years are worse than others/' explain the behavior of the ozone layer import of perhaps as much as $2 billion Solomon tells C&EN. "We show that over the next few decades. "If there's worth of equipment. So BASF is conthe processes that destroy ozone are an eruption, or two or three as there's cerned about China's move, effective quite sensitive even to relatively likely to be, the recovery of the ozone April 1, to drop custom-tax exemptions small amounts of particles at northern layer won't be monotonie," Solomon on capital goods imports by foreign inmidlatitudes." says. "We must expect fluctuations in vestors—which the firm says could increase the cost of equipment 40%. Duty Volcanoes exert their effect on the total ozone." ozone layer at midlatitudes indirectly. Pamela Zurer exemptions were reportedly discussed
Volcanic aerosols accelerate ozone loss
APRIL 8,1996 C&EN
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NEWS OF THE WEEK by BASF Chairman Jiirgen Strube Maxwell Telescope on Mauna Kea in when he met in Beijing in late March Hawaii, led by Matthews, found the Clinton plan to speed with Vice Premier and Economic Chief spectroscopic signature of HNC at subZhu Rongji and State Planning Com- millimeter wavelengths. cancer drug approval mission Minister Chen Jinhua. HNC is an isomer of considerably It's also not clear whether Beijing higher energy than HCN. Although as- President Clinton has announced a will approve the project. Investment tronomers have seen HNC and HCN "major new initiative" that will give approvals in China are notoriously in equal quantities in icy cold interstel- cancer patients faster and easier access complex—the complexity increasing lar clouds, most believed such an un- to promising treatments. with a project's size. For example, Shell stable compound as HNC would easily The Food & Drug Administration has been awaiting approval for more isomerize to HCN during the comet- will immediately implement a fastthan two years for a $6 billion refinery forming accretions of these clouds, says track approval process for anticancer William M. Irvine, astronomy professor drugs like that begun for anti-AIDS and petrochemical complex. Indeed, Moody's Investors Service at the University of Massachusetts, drugs. As Clinton explains, if a drug shows "effectiveness, patients will has just released a report critical of Chi- Amherst. Irvine, who originally suggested look- have access to it ... even while the na's chemical sector, saying that investors face abrupt tax policy shifts, an im- ing for the HNC signature in Hya- drug continues to undergo tests for apmature legal system, and poor patent kutake, says his colleagues initially were proval." Accelerated approval and protection. U.S. and Japanese compa- skeptical. "They said, 'Oh, it won't be three other proposals "will affect at least 100 drugs now being studied," he nies are so far shying from large petro- there; if 11 never survive,' " he says. chemical investments, although Dow The discovery surprised them all. "It notes, cutting FDA review time for Chemical is studying possible building suggests that the interstellar chemistry some of these drugs from 12 months to of its own petrochemical complex. has been preserved through the forma- six months. tion of the solar system," says Tobias For hard-to-treat cancers, effectiveJean-François Tremblay C. Owen, astronomy professor at the ness is being redefined to include parUniversity of Hawaii, Hilo. tial responses such as tumor shrinkage. Previously, before a drug was apAdditionally, a team led by Michael J. Comet Hyakutake Mumma, an astronomer at the NASA/ proved for marketing, it had to show reveals new chemistry Goddard Space Flight Center in Mary- such clinical benefits as increased surland, has found ethane in Hyakutake—a vival or improved quality of life. ObjecIn a fever of observing during the past compound also never before seen in a tive evidence such as shrinkage means few weeks, astronomers have detected comet—using the NASA Infrared Tele- "smaller, shorter studies for initial approval," explains FDA Commissioner unexpected molecules in the recently scope Facility on Mauna Kea. discovered comet Hyakutake. The Owen describes another exciting dis- David A. Kessler. finds include spectral evidence of hy- covery, made with the Caltech SubmilInitial approval must be followed by drogen isocyanide (HNC)—an unstable limeter Observatory on Mauna Kea: the further safety and effectiveness studies isomer of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) detection of HDO—a species so far in larger groups of patients, Kessler never before seen in a comet—and evi- seen only in the famous comet Halley. adds. "We are taking some risks," he dence of hydrogen/deuterium ratios According to Owen, the ratio of H 2 0 acknowledges. "We have to go into that may support the theory held by to HDO in Hyakutake appears to be this with our eyes wide open. One day some researchers that volatile elements close to that of Earth's oceans. If further we're going to make a mistake." But, were delivered to the planets via comet observations confirm this ratio, it will he says, therisksare acceptable for disimpacts. boost a theory that almost all of the eases such as AIDS and cancer with no Hyakutake, a dazzling vision even volatile elements on the inner planets— available cures. FDA will ask companies that have with the naked eye, caught astronomers carbon, nitrogen, and the oxygen by surprise when it was discovered a bound in water—were delivered by drugs approved abroad to submit the same information to FDA that led to mere two months ago by an amateur as- comets, Owen says. tronomer in Japan. Its orbit has brought That question should soon be re- that approval. FDA will use that data it closer to the Earth—less than 9 million solved, because Mumma and col- as a basis for making the drugs availmiles—than any recent comet. leagues have observed additional HDO able to critically ill patients in the U.S. However, cautions Sidney M. Wolfe, "If s a similar-sized object to Halley, lines in the infrared, and another team but the fact that if s so close means you is making UV observations with the director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group: "Since these drugs are can do so much," says Henry Mat- Keck Telescope, also on Mauna Kea. thews of the Joint Astronomy Center in If Hyakutake weren't astronomical almost all quite dangerous, any misHilo, Hawaii. bounty enough, another comet, Hale- takes overestimating the benefits or unImprovements over the past decade Bopp, is expected to make a spectacu- derestimating the risks could lead to in telescope detector and receiver sensi- lar appearance next April, and it may the drug doing more harm than good." Gerald J. Mossinghoff, president of tivity, especially in millimeter and sub- show yet another chemical face. "In the millimeter-wavelength regions, have last few years, we've discovered that the Pharmaceutical Research & Manugiven astronomers the tools to proper- comets are not all the same," says facturers of America, applauds fasttrack approvals as "a long overdue rely characterize the chemistry of Hya- Owen. kutake. A group at the James Clerk Elizabeth Wilsonform." He claims the "Administration's 8
APRIL 8,1996 C&EN
